View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How long does it take a tree to recreate ninety-nine percent of its living parts?
(a) one year
(b) twenty-five years
(c) thirty days
(d) a lifetime

2. What does she realize is the best way to quiet her mind?
(a) sitting quietly and breathing deeply
(b) by offering a nonchalant nod to the presence of words in the head
(c) counting from 100 to zero backwards
(d) taking a sleeping pill

3. How are Eskimos able to survive in such a harsh environment as theirs?
(a) they eat a lot of whale
(b) they had to possess an intimate understanding of their natural world
(c) their igloos are kept very warm
(d) they wear seal fur

4. What does Dillard say is the way to tell winter has arrived?
(a) when you see the first snowfall
(b) when the creek's water has frozen
(c) you can taste winter's arrival on the air
(d) when you have to make your first fire

5. What does the author see as an active mystery?
(a) whether it will rain that day
(b) whether there's life after death
(c) Tinker Creek
(d) if the creek will ever get bigger

Short Answer Questions

1. How do praying mantises mate?

2. Why did Indians used grooved arrows?

3. How do ladybugs hibernate?

4. What does Dillard's fascination and stories about praying mantises demonstrate?

5. What does Dillard believe is healing?

Short Essay Questions

1. Dillard still rails against the seeming cruelty of nature; however, what else is she seeing by Chapter 13?

2. This very brief chapter, "Untying the Knot," is about time. What does Dillard want time to be?

3. Dillard discusses the concept of the world as being "old and ragged." How does she relate that to the natural world and her own life?

4. What story does Dillard tell about a Native American woman and winter?

5. What is kayak sickness?

6. What is the correlation Dillard sees between time and the search for God?

7. Describe the two ways of seeing, according to Dillard.

8. Dillard believes that the death of the self is painless. What might she mean by this?

9. What does Dillard mean by the phase, "sinking into her center?" How does she use this technique?

10. Briefly tell the story written in Chapter 15 about a young man and his mother.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,149 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample